The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-03-01
HOW LOOK ABROAD.
What Others Think of MisSOuri's
Anti-Militia Legis-
latiOn.

1 ne NcN OTh ITlDuU6, referring
to the defeat Of the Missouri Militia
bill says:
Missouri is threatened with the dis
bandment Of her citizen soldiery
through the action of the State legis-
lature in refusing to indemnify the
regiments which did such important
public service during the great strikes.
1t is to be hoped that some means
will be found of averting this mis-
fortune and at the same time of recti-
tying the serious error of the legisla.
ture. Nothing more calculated to
arrest the progress of Missouri could
happen that the dissolution of her
militia under the circumstances, for it
would everywhere be believed that
the les islature had sacrificed the safe.
ty and the interests of the whole state
to the persistent clamOrs of small
minority of hot-headed men who
take the wholly untenable posi-
ton that there ought to be no state
interference with any violence or out
rage perpetrated during labor strikes.
There can be no doubt as to the issue
of such a contention. If in any state
the law.defying element so gets the
upper hand of the legislature as to
imperil all measures for militia relief
and appropriation, the business of
that state will begin to decline and its
prosperity to diminish. Capital will
be withdrawn from any region the
people of which deny to it the protec-
lion guaranteed by the constitution,
and those who are endeavoring to
override the laws will sooner or later
find that the main effect of their policy
is to paralyze all industries and to
leave labor without the means of
maintenance.
No government, however, demo
cratic, can prosper without the guar
antee of paramount force for use
in the fipal resort as support to the
laws. The American militia is the
best and most trustworthy representa-
tive of this principle. 1t avoids the
dangers and expenses inseparable
from standing armies. 1t provides
necessary recourse in the event of
domestic insurrectiOn or foreign az
erosion. The sentiment .Of hostility
to the militia is incompatible with
loyalty to the republican system of
government. 1t is an expression In
fact of enmity to all the methods
whereby law and order are preserved.
in the absence of the militia it is
clear that there can be no security
against the most serious and wide
spread disturbance and the most des-
tructive attacks upon property. Al
ready, owing to the demagogery of
some officials here and there, capital
has been driven to the hire of MERGE
naries for Its defense. In Missouri,
if the legislature continues ON Its
present course, the extention of that
practice must become the only alter
native, in many cases, with the entire
cessation of business.
The subject, however, is one the In
terest of which is not confined to any
one class. 1t concerns the whole COM
munity wherever it is introduced.
The consequences involved in legis-
lative action leading to the disband-
ment of the militia 60 to the very
roots of the whole existing fabric of
society. 1t is not to be supposed that
property owners vii! cease to defend
what they possess because the state re-
fuses to perform IFS duty to them. They
will assuredly make no such surrender
of their rights. But they will be com.
PEELED in such case, if they do not
chose to withdraw altogether, or if
withdrawal is impracticable, to organ
lie forces for their own protection;
and this means reverslOn to private
war and the.loOse and insecure social
system of the middle ages. 1t is upon
this dangerous path that the legisla-
ture of Missouri appears to have
entered, and its progress must be
watched with misgiving and disap-
prevail. The maintenance Of law and
the preservation of order are the first
duties of every government, and If it
abandons or refuses to support the
arm upon which it must depend for
authority to execute Its DEGREES at the
critical junctures, it invites lawlessness
and betrays its own citizens in the
most fairhless manner.